National Guard service members and their families face unique circumstances that distinguish them from other branches of the military. In this article, we highlight unique National Guard needs and argue that more can be done by policy makers to help this population.
Michigan residents were surveyed via telephone about their support for National Guard members and programs to support their reintegration.
Objective: National Guard forces have deployed in large numbers to Iraq and Afghanistan since September 11, 2001.
Mental health symptoms, use of provided mental health services, and perceived barriers to service utilization were assessed among members of the National Guard and their spouses/partners. In this sample, over a third of participants indicated having at least one mental health problem.
Current military deployments have resulted in many psychological and physical health issues and created interest in protective measures to mitigate effects of prolonged and repetitive stress. Mindfulness training has been successfully used for stress reduction in other contexts.
This study combines the fever model with communication privacy management to examine the conditions under which military wives are likely to disclose their family stressors or engage in protective buffering with their deployed husbands.
Survey data were used to explore communication between military wives and their deployed spouses.
This study responds to the recognition that the majority of military spouses have paid employment but that neither the Department of Defense nor other organizations understand their motivations for work or their perceptions of how the military lifestyle has affected their employment.
Military spouses participated in interviews to understand their motivations for paid work and their perceptions of how being a military spouse affected employment opportunities. Most reported that being a military spouse had a negative effect on their careers.